Hit 500 lbs of compost from my kitchen scraps this year and it blew my mind

I started weighing my compost bucket last January just out of curiosity. Didn't think much of it until I added it all up last week. 500 pounds. From just me and my roommate's banana peels, coffee grounds, and veggie scraps. That's a quarter ton of waste that didn't go to the landfill. My tiny backyard bin turned into the best soil I've ever used for my tomatoes. Anyone else track how much they keep out of the trash?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai_west1mo ago

That 500 pounds really jumped out at me. I read a study a while back that said food waste in landfills creates methane, which is way worse for the environment than people realize. Hearing you kept a quarter ton out of the system puts real numbers on it. Makes me want to start weighing my own scraps, even if it's just to see the impact for myself. Your tomatoes must be loving that gold.

parkerkim1mo ago

My buddy Dave started doing this last year and his wife got real into it. She kept a little notebook by the compost bucket and wrote down every single apple core and carrot peel. By December she had it tallied at 380 pounds. She was so proud she laminated the paper and stuck it on their fridge. Then their dog ate a bunch of the scraps from the pile and got sick so they had to fence it off.